Pat Riley Is Not Apologizing To Jimmy Butler Or For Miami Heat Culture

Pat Riley Is Not Apologizing To Jimmy Butler Or For Miami Heat Culture

Welcome on in guys. Tobin here with you and thanks for checking out the channel. Hope you’re doing well out there and if you guys could subscribe that’d be great and appreciate you stopping by the channel. So boots on the ground today for the Pat Riley end of season press conference. Much anticipated as Pat Riley speaking for the first time since the infamous keep your mouth shut comments and not giving Jimmy Butler the extension. And if you think Pat Riley was going to apologize or walk any of that back, he did not. Pat Riley did not walk any of that back. He in fact said uh you know, he uh he he said, “I’m not going to apologize for a contract extension.” And I don’t think I should. It’s done. It’s over. And I wish him well. And he said good luck to him, to Jimmy Butler. And I hope somewhere in his heart he wishes us well, too. I don’t know if that’s the case. I don’t think that’s that. Something tells me that’s not the case right now. Deep down, I don’t know. But Pat Riley actually I thought, you know, I I think Pat Riley, the Jimmy thing, he he wanted to try and um bury it. He did, but then it did get a little bit stirred up again. Um, and he actually made the point where he goes uh he goes what uh what happened with Jimmy was as ugly as it was uh he doesn’t want anyone to think that he didn’t appreciate it. He loves the guy uh loves the fun, but he said one of the things that uh he said on on being an alpha is one thing people don’t realize is Jimmy’s an alpha, I’m an alpha. And you know, sometimes that that that doesn’t work. And that was in relation to a question about the uh you know the Heat needing somebody next to Bam and Tyler, you know, are they a one? Are they one? Do they need somebody like that? And it was uh you know it was it was something. It was it was definitely an interesting thing like I think from the standpoint of um you know Jimmy Butler and all of this fiasco that was this year. He said he didn’t really want to get into specifics of what happened in the middle of the year. Um, but from my standpoint, he put on the idea that this whole thing because a lot of scrutiny has come about the way the Heat do things. And I didn’t even use the buzz term culture. He kind of went in that way. But my question to him was uh in regards to because he brought up narratives that, you know, the Heat aren’t good anymore. And he’s like, I you know, and those narratives aren’t true. And I I was like, you know, when you’re in a pad press conference to set things up, I’m in the back cuz I got my camera. It’s where I always sit. Sif or spoke press conference when I’m back there. Sometimes I’m off to the side if it’s not as crowded for like a player press conference. Um, and I know I’m probably going to get one. You know, I’m going to get one, but the guys are always great for for for helping it out. And you know, the writers are going to take care of their thing and they touched on a lot of stuff, but I I could the one place that I wanted to go originally, you know, you go into these things and and Pat even made fun of this at one point. He’s like, “What do you guys have a game plan?” And you kind of do because you don’t know how many time how many interactions you’re going to get with him. And my actual question that I was going to go in was related to Eric Spolstra and just kind of like where he thinks Spo is at cuz he’s he’s had these times as a coach where like you know maybe you know Pat thought about stepping away or was there a change that he made and Pat did that and it was really unsolicited because he he brought up this whole thing with Spo um when asked about the offense and I thought it was the fascinating part of the press conference more than the Jimmy Butler stuff, more than the star stuff, which we’ll get into, we’ll have time to, and the Tyler stuff and all that stuff. And and honestly, I thought it was for me, I thought it was the most fascinating thing from the Riley Presser because it was raw. It was real. And for this group, because obviously it’s just not enough. Well, I think I think you know, coach um I haven’t talked to him about it uh yet because he Eric has been doing this for 30 years, you know, intensely as the video coordinator up to being my main assistant coach. 17 straight years of coaching. So, he’s been like here for 30 years. never to take took a year off, never takes a break. He’s had some issues in his life, personal issues, and I see the strain and stress on him like I’ve never seen it before. This this this takes a toll. And when I talked to him the other day, he said he was going to Hawaii. I said, “Good. I’ll see you in training camp then.” You know, but that’s not going to happen. But he needs a break and and he needs time to reflect. He’s the head coach, you know. I mean, I could give him my playbook from 2006 or seven, but it’s archaic, but it’s not. But, um, he he’ll figure this out. He knows we need to first we need to defend and we need to, u he needs to make whatever kind of changes he needs to make when it comes to um to the offense. And we’ll talk about that. You know, if he wants to listen to me, he will. if he doesn’t. He has he has a lot of great people working for him. Yeah. Yeah. Spo has been through a lot personally. I know that a lot was made about the uh the divorce and that was a very public thing and not here really get into anybody’s relationships, but you know, they’re not fun I imagine. Um especially when it does make headlines and you know how much Eric Boler loves being in the headlines, which is 0.0. Um, you know, and then even, you know, of course he had the the thing that went on with uh with his son a couple years ago with with battling cancer. Eric Sparra has been through a lot and I and I thought it was interesting that Pat brought it up because this guy, you know, has been dealing with this for the last three years and maybe there was a point where like, hey, this was a good escape, but maybe there’s a point where it also when things aren’t going so good and everything feels like it’s bubbling up and getting to you, it can take a toll. And I think everybody has been from the mindset and I’ve been hard on Spo, you know, from this offseason and and for Pat to put it out there like that that hey man, we can all see like this this guy has has been wearing it from what he’s been going through this year. I think it does empathize the situation a little bit more because this guy I feel like went from the barn none best coach in the league and this was brought on by by Tim Ronald about the offense the creativity the guy who’s a step ahead the guy who feels like he’s always got a game plan to now hey suffered your second career sweep biggest margin of defeat in in history haven’t won a championship in this many years he wears all that even when people ask him about like championship teams Spo spit back like years ago. It was forever ago. What do you want to ask me about that for? And he said he needs a break. He needs time to reflect. He’ll figure it out. Uh he knows we need to defend first. He needs to make whatever kinds of changes he needs to make when he comes back to the offense. If he wants to listen to me, he will. If he doesn’t, he has got a lot of great people working with him. For me, man, that was like I was like that was the realest thing of the press conference. Like there’s a lot of nuggets and acorns that that that are there through about running it back and all that. We’ll get to a lot of that, but you think about all the things that Spo has been in through his personal life and this he team quite frankly over the last couple years been through a lot through their personal lives and whatnot and that uh you know before his departure included Jimmy too. Um, and then you think about like when there’s winning, it’s a great escape, but if things aren’t going so great and then you have the personal stuff to to to go outside, nobody wants to hear it because they make a lot of money. I get it. But I thought it was kind of it was refreshing to acknowledge like hey I felt like it was spo it was Pat saying this guy is one of the greats but even he has been dealing with a lot and he’s been wearing it and I don’t he didn’t say that it’s affecting him but I think it was implied that like hey this probably was affecting his job and last year he went to uh to Paris for the Olympics. on team USA and didn’t maybe necessarily get the break that he needed. And so now, you know, we’ll see what this ends up being. Um, you know, they was asked about the idea of a succession plan today with uh with with the team and where they’re going to go and um he said Spo is in great shape. He needs time to decompress. I feel great and Spo is going to be fine. So, you know, we always talk about the challenges that Pat will throw out in these press conferences and I thought it was kind of just like, hey, man, like we know maybe why you weren’t at the peak and optimal level for you. You dealt with a lot. You dealt with a disgruntled star like we’ve never dealt with before. Uh you tried to keep a team together and also it’s been a pretty crazy last few years for you. Um, and so hopefully that does happen for Spo and he does get that because yeah, he’s basically been at the grind of this for years and yeah, there’s been down years and there’s been years away, but you know, well then you you add, you know, raising young kids in it and then you got to you got to co-arent because it’s not all under the same roof anymore and all that. Dan, that’s a lot. It is a lot. It’s not it’s not nothing. I know we all have to deal with the uh the stresses of life, but his also his decisions on a day-to-day basis are under a microscope more than others. And I certainly think that he took criticism, which was warranted this year, but I think uh the Godfather there putting a little bit of an explanation on it with all of this stuff that went on. Um but yeah, I I liked that from Pat today. I like the fact that we we got our answer on Spo and where it was. My other thing that I was going to get into with it. I I so like that was the the Spo thing was answered for me. Like I don’t need to know about Spo that that for me that question that was important because I knew that Jimmy stuff was going to get asked. I probably wasn’t going to get in on that anyway. But um that the spo thing was asked and so like I was going to go two ways with it. I was like either ask about here cuz like or I wanted to get Pat’s impression because Pat has really been his ways have been under attack from from uh punts and they even watched another clip of Kendrick Perkins today still criticizing him which was kind of my whole philosophy and Pat this was the uh the back and forth you guys can uh can gauge from it but I decided to go with the hey you talked about narratives there’s a narrative out there that your days, the way you do things that uh that doesn’t work anymore for today’s player. And this is what he had to say. Pat, you mentioned a little bit about the narratives that have been out there. One of them was a lot of former players talking heads on television saying that the Heat way doesn’t necessarily work anymore, that today’s player doesn’t want that. What have you thought about some of those things thrown out there and and do you think that it still relates to today’s player? It doesn’t relate to me or us. It’s a narrative uh put out there on the part of other people that don’t know what it’s like inside here. Um you know, working behind the scenes, there’s two ways to do it. You can work behind the scenes and put in the time and you work you can work behind the scenes and put in the work. There’s two different things in there. And so, uh our culture has been the way it has been since, uh I got here. And at least that’s how I look at it. Has it been adjusted in some way, shape or form? Yes. And you have to for the this generational player and and for the league. But no, I’m proud of the culture. Uh I’m I’m proud of the environment that we have created over the years for everybody here inside who really know it and and for the people outside who don’t really know it but want to comment on it because it’s fashionable to comment on it and criticize it. to hell with them. We got a great culture. It hasn’t been crushed. And just because there was some uh some issues this year that that were not culture oriented, they were player oriented. You know, I’m talking about the Butler situation, whatever you want. Our culture is the same. And it’s a work culture. I believe in that statement. I know you’re going to throw up if I say it. hardest working, best condition, most professional, unselfish, toughest, nastiest, disliked team in the league. About four of those things be worth this year. And we have to adjust those. I’ll never change my thoughts on that. And I love it. I think it’s like from Patt, he’s like, “Hell with them. They don’t know. They don’t know, dude. They don’t know. We know it’s not been good enough.” He called the losses depressing. He called them humbling. He said they’re not going to run back. He said changes are needed. Um, I think all those answers were that. but don’t think that the Miami Heat is going to change his ways. And he said quite frankly also he he put out the point where he said uh he said that the culture uh we have a great culture and it hadn’t been it hasn’t been crushed. He says the issues this year weren’t culture oriented, they were player oriented. Talking about the Butler situation. Um, and he also, you know, the whole the mantra, he’s like, “We didn’t live up to the mantra this year either, right? We didn’t we weren’t the the toughest, nastiest team at least.” Like, we weren’t that. So, I definitely came away from today. Pat’s not apologizing. Still pissed at Jimmy. Is a little hurt. I think I think hurt by the Jimmy thing. I think that definitely was was the case that like it it got as bad as it did just over money. Um, but it did and they and I and I think that Pat not having a grasp of the good times, he’s like, “Yeah, sometimes things go bad.” But and he said he would take the blame on it. But I definitely think that the fact that it ended the way that it did and there wasn’t any respect after doing all those things, I think hurt him. Now for the Jimmy Butler fans out there who are like, “Yeah, well, you should have known. You should have paid him.” Well, I get it. I understand that perspective, too. But I I I think that the fact that he was still acting like T-Wolves uh Jimmy Butler years later with a team that had accomplished more together. Um this idea that he completely carried everybody, nobody, you know, nobody band didn’t do anything. The Heat organization didn’t do anything. It was all even though it was all it was all Jimmy, you know, it was it was it’s uh it was it was um I think a little bit you could tell that that stung. It still stung, Pat. It’s not gone. Like if you think he’s in this just because that he got their ass kicked. You think if Pat’s like remorseful over it? No, he’s not. He’s not. He’s not remorseful over it, he is sticking to his guns on it. And he made that quite clear. He made that very very clear with this uh with this with this Jimmy Butler thing that he’s not apologizing. And on the Ke Show, he’s like, “Yeah, that’s that’s that’s how I that’s how I was coached. That’s how I coach. You lose, you take your L, and you go beat it on the court the next year. There wasn’t trolling back in the day. Um, so I thought Pat handled all that stuff like I I I I really thought that he handled all that stuff quite uh quite well. And to the stuff on the retirement, yeah, it doesn’t seem like it’s happening. And it didn’t feel like it was coming. Like there wasn’t a lot of hints. I was even asking people, uh, well, you think this is, you think any shot this is it? And people let I don’t think so. I don’t think so. He still he still got it. And and I thought that he did. I thought that he was on point today with uh with a lot of stuff with his roster builds, with the team, with the players. Again, I’m going to do more on like what acorns did he leave on the the build. I’ll do another video on that. But uh just as the the the accountability like will people be happy with his answers that that will they feel like he was grilled enough? Probably not. But I do think that the message was clear without it having to be hostile. The team knows it’s not good enough. The team he knows it wasn’t good enough. He’s calling the the the series depressing. Um, and yeah, the only thing that I probably if I was to ask something be like because my way that I was going to ask the Roier thing I don’t even think I was going to be ask like do you make or do you regret making you know no one’s going to say yes but that was like the only thing I would say is there was so a lot of big picture stuff and the thing that sucks about Pat not speaking all the time is you would still like hey what do you think of Kell what do you think of Nicolola Yoic. What do you think of Do you think Andrew Wiggins is a good player? Do you think like, you know, these are the other things that uh that that could be Oh, it was a fascinating thing that Ira asked um a good question about the trade being not forward thinking enough and that it was uh you know, just getting a 20th pick for this year, which you know, gave the Heat a little bit of a safety net just in case they didn’t make the playoffs. Um, but getting guys like Wiggins and Anderson and DaVon who’s not even guaranteed to be back and Pat said like we were locked into a team like he only wanted to go to one team and the only reason that didn’t happen was because we couldn’t trade with that team. So he made it known that the li the options were limited in what they could do and and why they made that deal. But I thought that that was uh that was an interesting thing of that like hey could they have bet more against the Warriors like down the road or something like that. So I think from uh from his standpoint very interesting presser hit on a lot of big picture stuff of where the organization is but also has not lost his swagger whether people are tired of it or not. Has not lost his confidence. feels fully capable that the organization he kept putting up the term retoolled 13 times we’ve retoled every time we’ve had to make a pivot we made a pivot like this man is like it was funny because he comes into the press conference and he he asks people to raise their hands if they are if they were born after when he came to the Miami Heat which there were a handful of people um I am not one of them but which makes me feel old and I don’t like that but I I do think It’s uh it’s an an element of like, hey, don’t don’t you you can count us out if you want to. And I know there’s a lot of people who are right there are a lot of people who are rightfully doubtful about the Miami Heat right now. I get it. Not saying those doubts aren’t warranted. Um but this man has has lost none of that. He has he has no doubts with that. So, we’ll get into more stuff uh from this thing. I got thoughts on the uh the things that he had to say about Tyler, the the the aging stars and whatnot, but um you know, the the drama of it, the Jimmy Butler stuff, it was it was I I I I definitely think that Pat Riley saying, “I’m an alpha. I’m sticking to my guns. I ain’t apologizing. I don’t feel bad about not giving the extension and making it known that he wasn’t Yeah. he wasn’t okay with what Butler did. you know, and this is not something that he feels like was uh that he baited into. There could be debate on that. Um he did, you know, and and and I thought that stuff kind of trickled out as the presser went on because he even was like bringing up the Warriors, too. It’s like, ah, you know, they’re they’re elderly, you know, they’re old, but they’re there for right now. So, yeah, I think um I think that there’s definitely some still some remnants of how hurt he is that the the Jimmy thing ended the way that it did. Uh and and um but he’s not backing down from it at all. Like that was like when you say I’m an alpha, people forget Jimmy’s an alpha. I’m an alpha. You an 80-year-old saying to you, I’m an alpha. It’s kind of gangster. It’s like, okay, he is, hey, he is the mother godfather.

Tobin recaps some of his thoughts from the Miami
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